New York Media expands books coverage — and that's good news for readers

Rachel Murray / Getty Images for New York Magazine

New York Media (Vulture, The Cut, Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine) recently announced it would be significantly expanding its book-related coverage.

New York Media (Vulture, The Cut, Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine) recently announced it would be significantly expanding its book-related coverage. (Rachel Murray / Getty Images for New York Magazine)

Books coverage has been shrinking in newspapers — including this one — for about as long as I can remember.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud to be nestled in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, the hometown paper I grew up reading, but what book lover doesn’t miss the days of the stand-alone Printers Row book section?

Cataloging the technological and economic upheavals that have buffeted the business side of journalism would require a four-part series of this column, but the result has been a gradual shedding of content judged peripheral, which at many papers has sadly included books.

Bucking the trend is New York Media (Vulture, The Cut, Daily Intelligencer, New York Magazine), which recently announced it would be significantly expanding its book-related coverage, “tripling” its content spread across multiple platforms.

Last year, The New York Times, after years of running a kind of bifurcated system in which the daily and Sunday papers were separate fiefdoms, committed to a single vision for its books coverage under the authority of New York Times Book Review Editor Pamela Paul. Rather than signaling a consolidation and shrinking of coverage, this move added coherence and coordination, and included a redesign of the venerable Sunday Book Review.

Why are books worth investing in when it comes to drawing digital-age eyeballs?

I don’t know anything for certain. These examples could be Hail Mary bets, but it feels more substantive than that. I think these publications understand what you and I both know: Book audiences are the best audiences.

When advertising online, it is difficult to achieve “market segmentation,” grouping audiences in a way that allows for effective targeting of products and messages. Facebook and Google wield so much power because all of the personal data of ours they’re busy hoovering up allows them to target advertising on their platforms.

Websites or parts of sites that draw a group with natural affinities create a kind of self-segmenting audience, which allows for more effective advertising, which publications can sell at higher prices.

Affiliate income, a chunk of revenue for anything purchased from clicking through a site to a vendor, also has the potential to be a nice chunk of ancillary revenue.

Business matters aside, I think there’s a deeper reason why these publications are making this bet: They’ve recognized that books are enduringly popular and the nature of the internet as a medium has allowed book people to indulge.

This doesn’t mean more book reviews, but it does mean more book coverage — features about authors or trends, themed lists, lost treasures. Recognizing that people want to read and talk about books as much as they want to read the books themselves is proving to draw audiences.

It works on me, anyway, both as a writer of this column and a passionate reader. Often now I’ll finish a book I loved and go rooting around for interviews with the author or podcasts discussing the story or even online reviews from regular readers — all ways I can share and nurture my passion.

We are legion, folks. Let’s hope more publications get wise to our power.

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read next based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “The French Lieutenant's Woman” by John Fowles

2. “Bleeding Edge” by Thomas Pynchon

3. “City on Fire” by Garth Risk Hallberg

4. “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt

5. “Where'd You Go, Bernadette” by Maria Semple

— Michelle H., North Aurora

Almost feels like an easy one, which makes me suspicious, but I’m going with my gut: “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty.

1. “The Darkest Evening of the Year” by Dean Koontz

2. “The Bishop’s Pawn” by Steve Berry

3. “The Pharaoh Key” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

4. “The President Is Missing” by James Patterson and Bill Clinton

5. “So Cold the River” by Michael Koryta

— Pam K., Naperville

A clear preference as a reader, which I want to respect, but I can’t resist getting a little off the path. For Pam, it has to be suspenseful, and I’m going with a great novel of dark, psychological suspense: “The Dinner” by Herman Koch.

1. “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese

2. “Maude” by Donna Foley Mabry

3. “My Name Is Lucy Barton” by Elizabeth Strout

4. “Maine” by J. Courtney Sullivan

5. “Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman” by Alice Steinbach

— Lisa M., St. Charles

Here’s how crazy reading is: If I just read the title “My Name is Lucy Barton,” I get an emotional reaction rooted in my experience of reading the book. Tell me that’s not cool. Lisa needs something well-written and emotionally satisfying, which brings me to “Up From the Blue” by Susan Henderson.